Astros Star Jose Altuve Heading to Injured List with Oblique Strain

The Astros poor injury luck continues as Altuve hits the IL and is set to miss a chunk of time.

May 16, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve (27) reacts after hitting a home run to left field against the Texas Rangers during the first inning at Daikin Park. | Erik Williams-Imagn Images

The Houston Astros have seemingly not been able to catch a break when it comes to injuries since the beginning of 2025. Last season, Yordan Álvarez played only 48 games due to injury and Jeremy Peña, Josh Hader and much of the rotation missed significant time as well.

That trend has continued this season. Prior to Sunday, Houston had 14 players on the injured list, including Carlos Correa, Josh Hader, Jeremy Peña and Hunter Brown. The rotation has been hit particularly hard, but they are missing stars all over the diamond.

Unfortunately, that trend continued on Sunday after a 8-0 loss to the Texas Rangers. Jose Altuve, who was held out of the lineup after injuring himself on a swing on Satuday, will hit the injured list with a grade to left oblique strain, according to MLB. com's Brian McTaggart. The Astros have not formally announced the move.

Altuve's Potential Timetable and Impact on Lineup Moving Forward

Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The Astros have yet to give a specific timetable on Altuve at the time of writing this, but an educated guess can be made based on the injury. As McTaggart pointed out on X, Jake Meyers suffered the same injury on April 9 and still hasn't returned, though he could be activated on Monday.

Given that information, Altuve will miss at least a month, maybe more. That's bad news for an already depleted Astros lineup.

Here's the swing that got Altuve pic.twitter.com/H04fbwMguV

— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) May 17, 2026

The 36-year-old hasn't been himself this season, hitting .245 with a .706 OPS and 99 OPS+. Even though he's struggled at the plate, he's still an important presence in the clubhouse in lineup, so it's a big blow for the team.

This puts the team in a bit of a bind. Luckily, according to McTaggart, Jeremy Peña will travel with the team to Minnesota on Sunday. Adding Peña back on the heels of this Altuve injury could be huge for the lineup to not take an even bigger hit.

Even with Peña back, there is still a big whole to fill in the lineup every day. Luckily, the answers could already be on the roster.

With Altuve on the shelf, it's likely that Brice Matthews and Braden Shewmake will be seeing more playing time.

Matthews, who is sporting a 74 OPS+, is a natural infielder who has been playing in the outfield during the absence of Jake Meyers and Joey Loperfido. Meyers coming back could move him out of center, but the ideal construction of the lineup might be Matthews in a corner and Shewmake at second.

At this point, the Astros need to keep Shewmake in the lineup. In 16 games, he is hitting .341 with three homers and a .909 OPS.

Houston will once again have to do their best to piece together a lineup while their stars deal with injury.